Amped Up: Why Is My Name Jason?

There was, unfortunately, no luck in determining why Dad suddenly started treating me differently. No one could give me an answer. So, I was stuck wondering why this happened up until New Year’s Eve when Mom showed up. I hadn’t seen her in awhile and I had a bad feeling that I might not be able to see her. It was a gut feeling that might not be accurate, but there was really no way to be certain of my suspicions. To make matters worse, I hadn’t exactly gotten a straight answer from my father regarding whether he’d be performing Lovebug for Mom. In any case, I carried a banana with me at all times so as to be sure of the fact that Dad would play the song. He needed to. Otherwise, I’d lose contact with Mom for good; I wouldn’t let that happen. I just wouldn’t lose Mom.

Since the performance that Dad and my uncles would be giving was to be in New York, we flew up there a few days after Christmas. Garrett, Maddie, and my cousins were kind of disinterested in what was going on, but Uncle Teddy, Uncle Frankie, Aunt Chloe, Aunt Selena, Aunt Kyra, Aunt Lizz, and I were all intent on discovering if my father would be performing Lovebug along with Uncle Nick and Uncle Joe. We needed to know if Dad would stay true to his word and play Lovebug for Mom. She needed to hear it played by him. The fact was that so did I. I couldn’t keep playing the song at every concert my uncles and father had. School was more important for me to finish before focusing on any music career that I might have later on in my life. Though my father may have been home-schooled, I would go the way of my mother and graduate from high school. Aunt Lizz didn’t even do that because of moving out here when she was fourteen. I would though.

On New Year’s Eve morning, I walked into my aunt’s room with a morose look on my face. “Aunt Lizz, are you sure that Dad is going to do this? He hasn’t in the past,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, Jason, I know. Of course, much like you, Joe, Nick, Frankie, and I have been carrying bananas around with us so as to ensure that your father does what is needed of him. Should he refuse to play the song for your mother, we’re going to be shoving bananas in his face until he agrees,” Aunt Lizz replied. “I mean you know how he is about this song. If he does indeed play the song tonight as we want him to do, it will not be by choice, but rather by force that he does.” She sighed. “Amanda had better appreciate all that we’re doing for her in order to convince Kevin to play Lovebug for her. Hear that, Amanda. The moment Kevin finishes the song, you need to thank me for doing all of this.”

I eyed my aunt. “You know she can’t answer, right?”

Aunt Lizz nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I know, Jason. Of course, I know my sister’s still listening to what’s been going on. Despite the fact that she can’t answer us, I know she’s still watching over us and will do so until at least midnight tonight. Then, once your father plays Lovebug again, your mother will be around much more than she ever was. Kevin will want your mother around all the time after spending seventeen long years without her.”

“I just hope he plays it,” I said.

“So does everyone else,” Aunt Lizz replied.

“You mean, everyone other than Garrett and Maddie,” I growled. “Neither of them cares about me or anything that’s been going on in my life. That’s why they’re grounded: because Dad finally realized what’s been going on around him and grounded them for calling me Voorhees all the time.” At that moment, I remembered something. “So, do you really tell Dad that: of your suspicion that I’d be referred to as Voorhees at some point during my life?”

Aunt Lizz nodded. “Of course. As the names were being picked out, Joe suggested the most random of names: Grumpy. When that was shot down, he mentioned that your initials should be triple J while Garrett had GM. Your nickname for your brother is what I knew he’d be called. Then, since we were discussing nicknames, I had to mention to my older sister that you were at risk of being called Voorhees. I truly do regret letting Garrett and Madison become aware of that. Otherwise, you never would have had to deal with your brother and sister doing that to you; they’re cruel. Whereas you were always like your parents when they were teenagers, Garrett and Madison were more like me; they were more focused on having popularity. They had their priorities all mixed up and it didn’t really help that their father was so upset over Amanda’s death seventeen years ago.”

“Obviously,” I grumbled.

For the next few hours, I sat in Aunt Lizz’s room just talking with her. Every so often I would see that Uncle Joe, Uncle Nick, or Uncle Frankie would come in for something, but I barely paid any attention to what was going on. I was too busy thinking about tonight and what would be going on to concern myself amid what they were doing. When nine o’clock rolled around, everyone was dragged out to Madison Square Garden (ha ha!) so that they could get ready for the performance. As they were getting things set up for later on when the performance was given at eleven-fifty, I went up to my father. “Dad, are you going to play the song for Mom or do I have to shove a banana in your face?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you know?” I asked.

Aunt Lizz groaned. “Oh, God! Not this. Kevin, just because you proposed to my sister just as 2009 began while we were here in New York City doesn’t give you the right to refuse to play Lovebug for my sister. It just doesn’t make any sense for you to do something as stupid as that. Just play the damn song for her and stop trying to make excuses. I won’t stand for it and neither will your son. Jason, Amanda, and I all want you to play Lovebug, something you swore never to do ever since playing it at my sister’s funeral. What you must understand though is that the fans want to hear the song; you can run away from the song that your wife…and I suppose soul mate…loved so much,” she explained.

My father rolled his eyes. “Betsy, I’ve loved her far too much. Playing that song just hurts too much. The fact is that you’re the only member of her family I can stand being around because you always swore that you’d help me raise Garrett, Madison, and Jason. Remember when your cousin dropped by—the one that liked Joe since she was four—well, I could barely stand being around her. It’s the same with Lovebug; it hurts too much to play.”

“Oh, save it, Kevin. Just play the damn song for Amanda. She wants you to. She wants to see and speak to you, something that Amanda can only do after you play Lovebug for her,” Aunt Lizz said glancing over at me for a moment. “So, just start playing Lovebug again for my sister and you’ll be able to see my sister again. Just remember that playing Lovebug is the only way for you to see her. Otherwise, she’s gone forever.”

“Yeah, I know,” my father grumbled.

“Aunt Lizz?” I asked. “Was this really the place in which my father proposed to Mom? I never heard anything about that. It involved Mom so Dad never really talked about it. Plus, if I remember correctly, it’s a story you’ve never actually told us about.” I knew that this was definitely one story that never got mentioned to me or my siblings. If it had been, I would have remembered it. But, I didn’t. No one ever told me, Garrett, or Maddie that Mom was proposed to while she was here in New York along with Dad for New Year’s.

She nodded. “Of course it was. In the days preceding my sister’s twentieth birthday, which occurred precisely one day prior to New Year’s Eve, Kevin, Joe, Nick, and I planned for the four of us and my sister to go to New York. We even went so far as to throw suspicion of what we were doing off us by ensuring that it was your paternal grandparents who gave us the tickets to New York. Then, at exactly midnight, Kevin ushered in the New Year by proposing to Amanda with a two carat diamond ring with a guitar on the left side and a mandolin on the right side. The ring was customized so that the guitar had been inlaid with twenty-one yellow topaz stones and the mandolin was inlaid with twenty blue topaz stones so as to reflect the both of them. Her wedding ring was similar to that amid the stones inlaid in each the guitar and the mandolin being reversed. When we get back home, I’ll give both of those to you. Your father didn’t want them and I kept them with me, not wanting them to be buried along with my older sister. I kept them as a way of remembering my older sister and her premature death; she was only twenty.”

I nodded. “Yeah, and if she was alive, yesterday would have been her thirty-eighth birthday. You and I were the only ones to really celebrate that,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Kevin doesn’t like to. Your siblings couldn’t care less,” Aunt Lizz reminded me as we watched my father and uncles set up. “Joe, Nick, and Frankie would have celebrated with us, but they were kind of busy amid other things. I don’t exactly know about everyone else, but Teddy never really got to know my sister very well. I had only known Teddy for about eighteen days before Amanda gave birth to you three and died. Chloe never knew her, but Selena and Kyra did, particularly Selena. Selena was always the one helping me help my sister with the pregnancy. So, I don’t know why Selena and Kyra didn’t help us celebrate her birthday. I really couldn’t tell you why that seemed to occur.”

“We must be the only ones to care,” I said.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Two and half hours passed uneventfully and, at eleven forty-eight, my father and uncles took the stage. Aunt Lizz, Uncle Frankie, and I stood close by along with the family watching to see if everything would go as planned. It seemed to be. My father went up to the microphone. “For seventeen long years, I’ve been running away from this song, trying to forget what it meant to me. It was the first song that Mandolin and I danced to at our wedding as well as her favorite song. Plus, when you consider the fact that I played the mandolin in this song, it seemed as if Lovebug would only remind me of the wife I lost on my twenty-second birthday. Now, because of what my son announced a week ago, I don’t really have a choice but to play this song again. Mandolin, I’m sorry it took so long, but this is for you,” Dad shouted as he, Uncle Nick, and Uncle Joe began playing.

Three and half minutes later, once Lovebug was played for the first time in seventeen years by my father, I felt a hand appear on my shoulder. “Hey, Mom,” I said quietly, knowing exactly who it was and why. She was here because Dad finally did as he was told; he played Lovebug for her and now had the ability to see her. I quickly glanced up at my father who was smiling at me…well, technically, Mom. Of course, since no one really knew of what we could do, everyone would suspect that he was looking down at me.

“He finally played it,” Mom said.

“Yeah,” I nodded quietly.

Once all the cameras were off, my father and uncles, they came down and shuttled us off to the side. Everyone in my family eyed me and Aunt Lizz. “We can see Amanda,” Aunt Selena announced. “Why? Before Kevin played her favorite song, we couldn’t. Betsy, Amanda, what happened?”

I was confused as hell. “What?” I exclaimed.

Mom smirked. “Jason, it was your father. Though it was never mentioned to him or anyone…except Joe…playing Gotta Find You would let you all see me after Kevin played Lovebug. Joe, of course, when I appeared to him in the dream, was sworn to secrecy. He couldn’t tell anyone what Gotta Find You would do once Kevin played it and Lovebug. All Joe could do was hint at it by putting the sheet music for Gotta Find You somewhere that Kevin would find it. Then, the suggestion of forcing Kevin to play Lovebug by using you, Jason was also revealed to Joe, something that he could only talk to Betsy about.”

“Hey!” I yelled.

Uncle Joe snickered. “Sorry, JJ. I had to lie.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” I replied.

“Joe,” my mother groaned. “Do you really have to call him JJ? I mean, I know you said you were going to when you first suggested that Jason’s initials be triple J, but it just seems so weird. My brother-in-law is calling him JJ, my boneheaded, self-absorbed son and daughter are calling him Voorhees,” she quickly shot a look at Garrett and Madison before continuing, “while everyone else in the world calls him Jason; I don’t know, Joe.”

“It’s just a name, Panda. You know, just like Nick and I called you a musical instrument during that live chat that caused you and Kevin to meet. Or, if you’d prefer, Mandy.”

My mother laughed. “Joe, don’t bring that up. You know I never liked the name Mandy. I never did, despite the fact that I liked the song. So, remember not to ever bring that up.”

“Whatever,” he shrugged.

“Mom?” I asked. “Why would Gotta Find You allow all of us to see you rather than just me, Aunt Lizz, and Dad? I just don’t seem to get that and would like to know why.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It might be because it was always my favorite song from Camp Rock, the one I always found to remind me of the fact that I wanted to meet, date, and marry Kevin Jonas, which I eventually did. That was a wish I made at 11:11 every night from the time I was nineteen until the day I married him. Now, since it was a song Joe sang, I went into his dream and told of what would happen if Kevin played the song. As I expected, Joe put the sheet music where Kevin would find it. Joe and the others must really have wanted to see me if he did that. Either that, or he wanted Garrett and Madison to see me so I could yell at them for all the times they picked on their brother both at school and at home.” She turned to them and began yelling at them. “Calling him Voorhees. How could you do that to Jason? I remember when I was growing up and getting called names, usually by Betsy. It took my pregnancy to get rid of Duh, but sometimes when we were alone, Betsy would call me Duh for old time’s sake, becoming a part of who I was. Now, despite the fact that I named him Jason, I don’t want Voorhees to become a part of who he is. Jason doesn’t deserve that, does he, General Motors?”

“Mom!” Garrett yelled.

“Don’t like it, huh? Well, know you know how Jason feels?” she exclaimed angrily. “He hates the derogatory nickname that you and your sister gave him. And, as for the way you treat him at school, I think you better stop that right now. Your father and I, at some point during our teenage lives, were each loners, outcasts; Jason doesn’t need to go through that too.”

“Whatever,” Madison said rolling her eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, missy,” Mom exclaimed.

“Oh, and why not?” she asked.

“Look, Madison, I may be dead, but I’ve been watching over you your whole lives. It, of course, is only now that I’ve been able to come before you and yell at the two of you for everything that Jason has had to deal with, particularly you two always calling him Voorhees.”

“Why you name him Jason then?” Garrett roared.

“Nick? Do you have them?” Mom asked.

I looked over at Uncle Nick who smiled in mine and Mom’s directions before speaking. “Of course I did, Manda. Garrett and Madison need to understand the origin of their brother’s name. They don’t know because of your death and the fact that Kevin would let them. As you know, I’ve already shown Jason those movies. Now it’s time for Garrett and Madison to understand the origin of their younger brother’s name,” Uncle Nick said.

“Huh?” they asked.

“At the hotel,” Uncle Nick replied.

Once we got back to the hotel, everyone—including Mom’s ghost—headed into Dad’s hotel room. There everyone sat around waiting for Uncle Nick to come in with the Camp Rock DVDs. When he did, I noticed that Garrett and Madison were confused. “What the hell is going here?” Garrett wondered looking at Madison briefly before turning to Uncle Nick.

“Just watch these movies,” I told them.

With the exception being all of the younger cousins and the aunts—excluding Aunt Lizz—everyone sat around watching the Camp Rock movies. After they were all over, Garrett and Maddie looked between me, Mom, and Dad. “He was named after a character Dad played early on in his career. Why would you do that?” Madison asked them.

Dad hung his head. “Because of me. She did it because of me and the fact that I left midway through the pregnancy in order to film Camp Rock 2. Mandolin wanted one of our sons to be a constant reminder of the fact that I left to film a movie during the pregnancy, even though I knew absolutely nothing about the pregnancy until after Joe, Nick, Demi and I got back from filming in Canada.” He shot a look at Mom. “Mandolin, you and Betsy should have told me what was going on. I see absolutely no reason for me not being told that I was going to be a father. It just didn’t make any sense for you guys to do that.”

“Yeah, except for the fact that you would have worried constantly about the condition of your pregnant wife,” Uncles Nick, Frankie, and Joe retorted suddenly at Dad.

Dad began grumbling. “Would you shut up about that? I had my reason for doing that. I didn’t want to lose her. Of course, as you can obviously see, I did lose her. And, as a result, Jason became a constant reminder of the loss I had suffered on my twenty-second birthday. That’s part of the reason I ignored Jason for as long as I did,” Dad said with a sigh.

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t have that,” everyone, but Garrett, Madison, and my cousins yelled. As I noticed, even Aunt Selena, Aunt Kyra, and Aunt Chloe (despite the fact that she never knew Mom) were all yelling at Dad. It must have bugged my aunt seeing him mope because Mom died. Aunt Lizz, of course, had suffered the brunt of it all when considering the fact that she had been living with him from the time she moved out to California in the first place. It was rather surprising to see all my other aunts yell at him though.

“I figured that out!” Dad exclaimed.

With that, everyone filed out of the room except for me, Mom, and Dad. Eventually, I did follow though because I was not in the mood to sit around while my parents talked. They had a lot of catching up to do after not seeing each other for seventeen long years. So, when I left my father’s room it was at a point where Dad had his arms wrapped around Mom’s ghostly figure talking. I smiled at that. Finally my parents had been reunited. Despite the fact that it took some persuading from me and Mom for him to play Lovebug, it occurred and now, Mom and Dad could talk as much as they wanted. Plus, now I had my mother around. The moment Dad played Lovebug was the very same moment in which I was able to continue communicating with my mother. And, because Dad played Gotta Find You, everyone could see Mom, including Garrett and Maddie.

In addition to that, both of my siblings got yelled at for calling me Voorhees. Over the past few hours, Dad had come to realize that he needed to stop paying more attention to Garrett and Madison and start paying more attention to me. Because he started doing that, I was able to get rid of my horrid nickname and force my siblings to start calling me Jason again. That was actually one of the best things that had come out of the past two months; my brother and sister were now in trouble for calling me Voorhees for so many years and had finally come to understand the reason for my name being Jason.

When I walked into my hotel room, I found that Aunt Lizz was standing there. “Things finally seem to be working out, aren’t they; Amanda and Kevin have been reunited and you were able to finally about to sever all connection you had to the name Voorhees,” Aunt Lizz said with a smile. “So, may I assume that you’re happy about all of this?”

“Of course,” I replied.

“Good,” she said.

“Yeah, I mean, it took forever, but things finally seem to be falling into place,” I said with a sigh. “Mom and Dad are finally back together and my siblings have been forced into grounding for calling me Voorhees all the time. Plus, I think Dad has finally come to accept the fact that he must spend time with me. Music and my playing Lovebug last week seems to have brought us closer together than we ever were. Not that we were close in the first place.”

Aunt Lizz laughed. “Yeah. Now all we have to do is get your father down to your mother’s grave. He needs to go down there, despite the fact that he can now see and speak to your mother.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“No clue.”